Obsessed, p.13
Obsessed, page 13
After Trey stepped away, the coach asked, “Do you live in Westchester County?”
“The city.”
“I figured you had to live someplace like that if you could afford to send your kids here.”
“Do you have kids here?”
Coach Martin laughed. “Even with the discount I get for working here, I could never afford to send a child here. Besides, mine are only three and five.”
“Doesn’t the school offer scholarships?”
“Generally, in some sports, especially football. We’ve been the regional champs five years in a row. But the scholarships are also designed to promote diversity. I doubt your kids would qualify.”
I smiled but didn’t give him any details about my family.
The headmaster finished his phone call and ambled back toward us. Coach Martin stuck out his hand again. “Hope you enjoy your tour, Mr. Bennett. And be careful down there in the city. It’s not like up here in the suburbs where everything’s quiet. You could get killed in the city.”
“You can get killed anywhere. At least I know my way around the city.”
Chapter 54
ON THE PLUS side, my tour was finished and the headmaster hadn’t suspected what I was really after. On the minus side, I really hadn’t learned anything of value. I wasn’t about to mention Jaden Banning’s name. A place like this would immediately inform Mr. Banning, who would almost certainly claim some kind of harassment. That would make it much more difficult to determine if either of the Banning brothers was involved in the murder of Estella Abreu, Suzanne Morton, or Emma Schrade, who’d been found in the Bronx.
I was on my way to my car when I heard someone call my name. I turned to see the woman I’d vaguely recognized from inside the office. She hustled toward me as fast as her high heels could carry her.
“Hi, Detective Bennett. Do you remember me?”
I said, “I knew I recognized you.” I hate to ever admit not remembering someone.
“Michelle Finnegan.” She read my blank stare and added, “My daughter Alyssa went missing when she was ten years old, and you found her.”
I snapped my fingers. “The little girl who liked to ride buses. I found her on a bus headed from the Upper West Side to Midtown.”
She jumped up and gave me a hug. “I’ve been holding that in for eleven years. You were the only one who actually listened when we were telling you about Alyssa. You’re the one who figured out the bus schedules and brought her home to me safe. I’ll never forget that.”
“What’s Alyssa up to now?”
“She’s a senior at Binghamton. She wants to work in transportation. Go figure.” We both laughed together.
It’s moments like these that make every hardship a cop faces worthwhile. It doesn’t take many successes like this to make you forget about the failures.
We chatted for a few minutes. Michelle told me how much she’d enjoyed working at the school the past four years.
I took a chance. “Can I ask you a question just between the two of us?”
“Of course.”
“Do you know a student named Jaden Banning?”
“I know all the students. Jaden a little better than the rest. He seems to find his way to the office frequently.”
“He might be involved in something serious. That’s why I’m really here. I was just seeing if I could pick up any information.”
“Jaden is sort of famous around here. He brought an unbelievably beautiful girl as his date to a school dance some months ago. A little older. Really made an impression.”
That caught my attention immediately. “Would the girl have had to sign a register or anything to go to the dance?”
Michelle Finnegan shook her head. She said, “Some of the boys were talking about the girl the next week. Apparently, when someone asked Jaden if she was his girlfriend, he said, ‘No, my brother got me The Girlfriend Experience.’”
“The what?”
“Apparently she was an escort hired by Jaden’s older brother. He’s some kind of financial analyst in the city.”
“She was a prostitute?”
“I don’t think so. More of a date for hire. I asked Alyssa if she’d ever heard the term. She said she had but wasn’t sure what it meant.”
This felt big. Huge. But I needed more. “Is there any way, short of speaking to Jaden Banning or his brother, that I could identify this girl?”
Michelle pulled her phone from a pocket of the blue sweater she had on over her blouse. She started scrolling through her photos and said, “I may have a couple of photos of them. I took about fifty that night. Mostly of decorations but quite a few of the students as well.”
I waited while she scrolled through her photos. When she held up the phone, I had to squint and lean closer to see the photo clearly.
Jaden Banning was smiling with his arm around Emma Schrade.
Chapter 55
THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE. The phrase pinged around in my head. It seemed familiar but alien at the same time. I used my phone to look it up and saw that it was a TV show and used on several adult sites to describe an escort pretending to be someone’s girlfriend. Those kinds of general terms didn’t seem like they would help me at the moment.
I went to the best possible source of underground phrases: Ronald Higdon, Esquire.
When I walked into Higdon’s Pawn and Jewelry, I saw a young couple at the counter talking with Ronald. The way my informant looked up and said, “Good morning, Detective Bennett,” told me he was warning the couple not to say anything they weren’t supposed to in front of a cop.
I was anxious to talk to him. I turned and looked at the front door. He took the hint and told the couple to come back later to finish their business.
When we were alone, I asked Ronald, “What kind of conspiracy are you involved in with those two?”
“Conspiracy? They were just looking at rings. I’m offended you’d think I’d conduct any criminal activity in my business.”
I said, “I’m offended you’d think I didn’t realize you’re constantly conducting criminal activity in your business.”
Ronald put on a pleasant smile and said, “Sounds like we should agree to disagree.” Wisely, he changed the subject. “I poked around a little bit after you texted me. I think I’ve got some information on your Girlfriend Experience.”
I didn’t say anything. Sometimes silence can be a great motivator. It clearly made Ronald a little uneasy.
“A-a lot of p-people” he stammered, “use the term. But it’s also the name of a little group here in Manhattan. I don’t know how little, but it’s not widespread. A group of young ladies who make money renting themselves out as dates. Sex is not always on the table. I heard that’s negotiable.”
“It sounds a little like prostitution.”
“It’s not like the old days, Bennett. No pimps involved. Everything’s online now. Very sophisticated. Sounds like these girls run it themselves.” He looked on his phone, then said, “I’m texting you a link to the site. I also talked to some of my people on the street. They’ve heard it was going on, but no one knows any of the girls involved. It sounds like they’re pretty smart.”
I stood there for a moment, thinking about what Ronald had just told me.
Ronald said, “Think the girls who ended up dead were part of this Girlfriend Experience?”
I shook my head. “Don’t know. Maybe. Easiest way to find out would be to ask Kyle Banning directly. He’s already said he won’t talk to me. Or at least his father did.”
“You probably don’t want to involve one of your smart kids who know how to sail around the internet, do you?”
I looked at Ronald. “That’s a good idea.”
“Using one of your kids on a murder investigation?”
“What? No, of course not. But I know some pretty smart tech people who aren’t related to me. I bet I know exactly which one would want to help.” I turned on my heel and hustled for the door. Just as I opened it, I turned back and said, “Thanks, Ronald. Sometimes you’re even helpful when you don’t mean to be.”
“For the purposes of payment from the NYPD, I always mean to be helpful.”
Chapter 56
THE NYPD HEADQUARTERS makes me uncomfortable. I have never liked being around One Police Plaza for very long. As far as I’m concerned, the place is a necessary evil only visited if I want to talk to someone in Special Investigations or Human Resources, or our forensic tech people. That’s why I didn’t appreciate the fact that I had visited the place so many times in the past few days.
I walked through the main door of the Tech Unit. It wasn’t dark and dingy like TV shows often portray tech hubs. But I knew that some of the tech people preferred to work in a darkened room since it reduced glare.
A young man looked out from behind his desk and said, “May I help you?”
“Is William Patel here?”
The young man pointed to a partially closed door, then went back to working on his computer without another word. William Patel had been a tremendous help when I was stuck in Washington, DC, trying to find out who had killed my friend FBI agent Emily Parker. Not only did William help me; he’d also done so without approval from the NYPD. He trusted that I needed help to find a killer instead of listening to people who were trying to chase me out of Washington.
The ten-by-twenty-foot room had four computers and the lights turned low. William was in the corner, studying a screen filled with computer code. When he looked up to see who’d come in, his eyes looked bleary and bloodshot.
It took a moment for him to recognize me. Then he perked up instantly.
“Detective! What brings you to our little high-tech kingdom? Have another big case you need help with?”
“You should be a psychic, William. That’s exactly what I need.”
He got a big, goofy grin on his face. He looked at me and said, “Put me in, Coach.”
It was hard not to feel encouraged by an attitude like that. Especially since I knew a lot of the tech guys took shit from other detectives. Some detectives viewed them as nothing more than nerdy administrative assistants. They were constantly trying to get the tech guys to bypass safeguards on their NYPD laptops. Mainly software to keep them from downloading dangerous programs and viruses or to track their internet usage.
I took the seat next to William and started to tell him what I’d learned about The Girlfriend Experience. I handed him an information sheet on each of my three victims, Emma Schrade, Estella Abreu, and Suzanne Morton. Each sheet had just their personal information, like their date of birth and their cell phone number.
While I laid out the information as I knew it, William started to work on his computer. I told him what I knew about the case and my two suspects, Kyle and Jaden Banning. I pointed out to him that I had no evidence on either brother. Or anyone else, for that matter.
He kept typing while occasionally glancing up at me. When I finally finished talking, I leaned back in the chair.
“What do you think, William? Can you get me some kind of a line on this Girlfriend Experience? I know you’re busy and it’s tough to take time out of your day, but you told me you wanted to be involved in more interesting cases. When do you think you’d be able to help me?”
William looked at me with no expression. I noticed his dark hair was longer than the last time I had spoken to him and he wore a new pair of more fashionable glasses. “The stuff on the printer behind you has the best match I could find looking through some of the seedier parts of the internet,” he said.
“What?”
“Reach behind you and take the sheets from the big laser printer.”
I turned in my chair and plucked nine sheets of paper from a blocky printer.
The top sheet was a printout of a New York State driver’s license photo for an extremely pretty girl with long blond hair. I didn’t recognize her, but there was a list of several phone numbers below the photo, as well as a few addresses. I turned my eyes back to William but kept silent. I knew any question I asked would sound stupid.
William said, “I cross-referenced the phone numbers from the sheet you just gave me through a few sites the NYPD would not approve of. Anyway, it looks like your victims all used at least one phone number in common. It was probably some kind of a hub or a computer. The printouts I just gave you have all the information on the girl connected to that phone number. Her name is Allie Pritz. Looks like she used to go to NYU. She’s got a lot of addresses attached to her name. All over the city. Maybe she can tell you what you need to know.”
I was speechless. It actually scared me that someone could find out all that information in just a few minutes, while still engaging with me and probably playing a video game at the same time.
It also made me evaluate my past experiences at headquarters. Maybe I had expected too little. Between Gary Avram, Persephone Garland, and William Patel, I had been able to jump ahead with their quick assistance.
Finally, I said, “William, I could kiss you.”
He held up both hands and said, “I’m really not interested in something like that, Detective. I’m not judging you or your choices. I’m just saying it’s not for me.”
I was so anxious to work with the new information that all I said was “Understood.”
Chapter 57
I WENT OVER the information William Patel had just given me. There wasn’t much more here about Allie Pritz. She was twenty-two. Born in Philadelphia. Never been arrested. Attended NYU for two and a half years. Now it seemed she was coordinating some kind of dating service. Normally, something I couldn’t have cared less about. But if the members of this service were being murdered, I needed to learn more.
Before I could plan my next move, I received a text from my grandfather, Seamus. One of the kids had told him texting was cooler than calling. Now he was a texting maniac.
All it said was Can you swing by my office or call me?
My grandfather appreciated people’s time and effort. He hated to disrupt their normal day if they were working. So a casual message like this meant something different coming from him. It was the equivalent of someone else shouting, Come here right now!
I texted him, On my way.
Even I was surprised how quickly I got uptown. When I stepped into his office in the administrative building next to the church and school, I immediately knew what the problem was. Trent, Eddie, and Ricky were all sitting around a small table in the corner of Seamus’s office doing their homework.
My grandfather didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to embarrass the boys.
The first thing I asked was “Is everyone okay?”
My sons all nodded at the same time.
Seamus said, “The boys had a run-in with the bullies again.”
I turned toward the boys. “I thought we agreed you’d stay away from those courts until we worked this out.”
My grandfather interceded before the boys could speak. “It didn’t happen down the street. The boys were right in front of the church.”
Trent blurted, “We were just across the street. Tommy Sosa said we were too chicken to leave the grounds and started running around with his hands under his arms, flapping his elbows and clucking like a chicken. What were we supposed to do?”
I glanced over at my grandfather. Clearly, he was concerned about the situation, but Trent’s colorful explanation made him want to laugh. He was holding it in. And not doing a particularly good job of it. Even I’ll admit I can remember being goaded into doing stupid things when I was a kid. I think boys are especially susceptible to taunting. Tommy Sosa had known exactly what buttons to push.
I looked back at Trent. “It’s okay. You’re not in trouble. Just tell me what happened.”
There were a lot of starts and stops from all three boys. Basically, the same bullies who’d bothered them at the basketball courts had been walking down the street and saw them. The oldest boy shoved Trent to the ground. Then the one who had shown them the gun in his waistband pointed his fingers at Eddie like they were a pistol, and mimed shooting.
This was troubling on a number of levels. The threat of gun violence was the most alarming. I waited for the end of the story. What happened then? Where did the bullies go? Did any adults see it?
Ricky shrugged his shoulders. “We ran back inside the fence around the school. We didn’t see where the other boys went. I don’t think anyone noticed us.”
Eddie appeared to be the most shell-shocked. He said, “Can I be homeschooled for a while? I’m tired of getting pushed around when I come to school.” His tone said he was trying to joke, but I could tell he’d be happy to stay at home for a while.
Ricky was much more brash. He said, “Don’t you think it’s time we stood up to them? I want to get my own gun.”
I held up my hands and said, “Don’t say stupid things like that, Ricky. This is a problem that we can solve. But the first thing you need to do is stay on school property, as discussed.”
Eddie said, “Is this why some people think the police don’t help much?”
“The police have to follow certain rules. Even when our own family is involved.” I looked at my grandfather and said, “Would we be able to get any footage from the security cameras at the front of the school?”
Seamus smiled. “I already have a video file saved for you. You can see all three bullies clearly. It’s a little harder to see what they were doing.”
“That’ll do for a start.”
I decided I needed to call it a day and drive the boys home in my city car.
Chapter 58
ONCE I GOT home with the boys, I started getting texts from Walter Jackson. He’d found a few more possible addresses for Allie Pritz. Two of the addresses were in Midtown, one in the Bronx, one in Brooklyn. Plus, I had the addresses William Patel had given me. It looked like I had a long day of checking addresses tomorrow.
Just after dinner, I sat at the dining room table, helping Chrissy with her history homework. She was studying the Dark Ages. It was generally basic stuff, like how most of Europe was in chaos and diseases like the Black Plague added to the misery.
